This invention relates to support structures for electrical components, and more particularly to structures supporting the substrate of microelectronic hybrid circuits.
Complex electronic equipment generally includes several printed circuit (PC) boards carrying electrical components that make up an operating system. Components on the PC boards may be arranged in groups which make up separate systems, subsystems, circuits, and subcircuits. In order to reduce the physical size of and to simplify the fabrication of such equipment, miniature electrical components of a circuit, for example, may be mounted on a flat, rectangular ceramic or glass substrate to form a hybrid circuit. This method of manufacture is desirable since such hybrid circuits can be tested independently of other elements and circuitry to ensure that the hybrid circuit is operating properly before it is connected into more complex circuitry on a PC board. The electrical circuit patterns on such a hybrid are commonly formed by thick-film or thin-film techniques, with miniature discrete elements being connected thereto and a multipin connector protruding from one edge of the substrate for insertion into plated-through holes on a PC board. Such a hybrid circuit is itself an electrical component that is a complete operational, functional unit. The pins on the hybrid circuit are most commonly inserted into the plated-through holes on a PC board with no external means for supporting it. It is desirable that there be vertical support of the hybrid substrate on the board to prevent damage to the hybrid during manufacture, handling, and servicing of equipment including the PC board. A prior-art technique for supporting hybrids on a PC board utilizes elongated cylindrical rods having a longitudinal slot in one side thereof and a cylindrical groove adjacent one end thereof. Rods are snapped over opposite ends of a substrate, and the one ends of the rods inserted into holes extending through a PC board. These rods have a tendency to fail at the grooves thereon when the circuit board goes through wave-soldering such that they actually provide very little support for the substrate.
An object of this invention is the provision of improved structure for supporting one member on another member.